


Intermission I

by Queen_of_Wands (8_excuses_are_necessary)



Series: FortuneBound [2]
Category: Hiveswap, Homestuck
Genre: Gen, Major Original Character(s), Non-Canon Characters Only, Original Character Death(s), SBURB, The Void, Universe Ending, people die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:27:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25103917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/8_excuses_are_necessary/pseuds/Queen_of_Wands
Summary: This is also not the end, but a step back.  Let's consider this just a continuation of the previous session, a look into something that you otherwise would have never seen.  This is the step between, but not the start of what comes next.
Relationships: Original Character/Original Character
Series: FortuneBound [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1558648





	1. Intermission I-1

You sit in the silence for a moment. You try to take a breath. You try to think about what's going to come next. Your hands are still restrained. You can't even wipe at the tears that are on your face. You didn't know those kids. You didn't really know them at all and yet you felt their disappearances so deeply in your chest.

But when you manage to blink away the tears, you see that the screens are lit up again. This feels different from the beginning because you can feel the power on the screen being on. But there's nothing happening for a long moment. It feels like the system is thinking, contemplating what it wants to show next, not certain that it knows what would be the best thing to show you.

And then it fades in. On one of the side screens is a young man sitting in a small room. You can't see much about him, but you can hear the room. The door makes a noise, but he doesn't look up from whatever he's working on. Instead, it's like he's used to his door being jostled all the time like someone just bumped into it fairly regularly. The screen lets you know that this young man's name is TITUS, and he is a DOOM player. The screen doesn't show you the class that matches his aspect and at first you want to question it, but when have the screens here ever told you exactly what you needed when you needed it.

On the other screen is a similar setup, but there's a girl at the center of it all. Her computer and setup are in the middle of what looks like an empty ballroom. No one is near her. And you think that there might not be many other people that come into this room, just based on the piles of dust on the other tables that you can see. The only table that's clean is the one that she sits at. Her name is SYLVA, and she is a player of MIND.

It doesn't take a genius to understand the part that these two people played in the other session, but you aren't sure why they weren't shown at the same time. The two of them are separated by the screen that was in the center. So they're not part of the 'main group' of players. But they had a part.

You take one deep breath and then exhale. You will need patience and time for the screens to tell you exactly what happened here and what it means for the players in the center screen.

\---

Sylva sits with her laptop open. There is a stack of papers next to her, but there's no pen in sight. She isn't even looking at the papers or her computer. Instead, she's staring off into space, trying to focus on something that's far away. Her mind has definitely been wandering far away. And it sounds like her mind is still thinking away even after she gets one ping, two pings, three pings, four pings. There's a cup of tea, full but no steam left on it, which isn't a good judge of time, but it does tell you that it's been a while since she got up and got it.

She looks down at the screen eventually, her face reddening with a little bit of shame as she scrolls back up into the last couple of weeks of messages.

\--- axiomaticGuide [AG] has begun a conversation with auricularSnow [AS] ---

AG: I know that you're there.

AG: WOULD you kindly just answer any of my messages from the last couple of days?

AG: WE can't keep ignoring everything that's happened. IT wouldn't be right. IT wouldn't be healthy really.

AG: THERE is a lot that has happened. I am not going to blame you for any of it sylva.

AS: ...you are going to blame me for it...

AS: ...you blamed me before and i don't think you're going to stop now...

AS: ...why would you stop blaming me when i'm such an easy target???

AG: BECAUSE we were both in this situation. WHAT happened is on both of us and not on just me or just you. YOU by yourself didn't do this.

AS: ...it doesn't feel like that when you come and talk to me like you do... ...i'm afraid that we're just going to get into more trouble as we try to do this...

AS: ...we can't keep going like this...

AG: IT is too close for us to do anything like we were before. THE people that we're trying to help are going to be here soon. THAT group of people needs the guide that we're working on. THEY need something to get them through all of the shit that they're going to go through.

AS: ...as it is right now, my guide is still incomplete, titus...

AS: ...unless you are truly suggesting that we... ... ...

AG: I am.

AG: THERE'S no other way to do this now. WE need to talk about what it's going to look like and what risks we are willing to take.

She suddenly shuts her laptop and puts her head down on it. You can barely see the motion of her shoulders shaking. You realize after a moment of this that she's crying, the kind of cry that you do when there's no one else in the room. The kind of cry when you're certain that no one's going to walk in on you. She doesn't reopen the laptop during all of this and you can guess that she doesn't open it until way later. Before you see her open it, the screen shifts, taking you to a different time, maybe an earlier time.

\---

Sylva and Titus look different, almost hopeful. They look like something that you've never seen before. They look like the kind of people that the other group wanted to be like. But they weren't that. You can see them as they begin to realize what they're getting into before their lives are going to fall apart. For a moment you can only see these two figures dead on the tentacles of the creature, the most recent victims of a creature that has eaten from session after session of this game. And then you see them standing there in their respective frames. They're on the path that takes them there and you wonder what they ruined before the end of the session and how they played into the hands of a cruel fate.

A ghost of a touch goes across your shoulders. You look back but there's nothing there, just the whisper of a breeze. If it was anyone, there's only the Queen of Wands that could have been there checking in on you. And then you turn back to the screen.

The younger Titus and Sylva spend their time talking to people on their screens, strangers that don't know each other. And then they stumble across a group of people their age. They're willing to play. And then within 48 hours, 4 meteors crash into the world, removing people from this reality.

The first time that someone dies from their work, Sylva is stoic. She knew this was coming. She had every piece of information that told her that this was going to happen. But even with all the warning that she had given to Titus about the situation, you can tell that he didn't expect that it was going to get this rough. He didn't expect the whole situation to shatter the way it wound up.

And he doesn't speak to Sylva for a week. She sends page after page of messages, reassurances that this was going the way that they had thought it was going to that there was nothing new in this situation. She told him that it was okay to feel guilty, but all these people were going to die anyway.

But the messages fall on deaf ears since he never comes online during that week.

The screen of him shows him sitting in that closet room for a week, venturing out at night only to get the essentials. He sits alone, muttering to himself, computer closed. He just stares into space or lays on the bed. Somewhere in the sleep, he realizes that this was inevitable. He goes through the story again and again. Everything that Sylva had told him. He knows that it had to be this way. When he realizes it, everything goes more or less back to normal. He goes back to talking to Sylva who had already moved and found another group of people that were willing to play the game again.

The two of them are back in the swing of things with Sylva keeping notes and compiling them as they go. It's a clinical approach this time around. She doesn't let herself get invested. Titus is there guiding some of their choices, helping them find their way across the universe that was created for them.

The group of six makes it further than expected. Their homes are destroyed in fiery explosions. They see pictures this time around, things that feed into how they advise the players in this game. And then one day, they receive nothing. They assume the worst.

But then they receive messages from some creatures that don't speak English. They type on the computers, send pictures of an empty place in space until the two of them block the accounts. And Titus sits there, thinking about what he's done again. Now to six more people that did not deserve to go out that early.

And then when the two of them work on the guides that they put together. Sylva returns to looking for groups of people when a group of twelve falls into her lap. They're so connected, so happy.

And the game doesn't give them a chance to play. As soon as the discs are installed, there are stories around the world of meteors falling. And the twelve that they found don't connect to the internet again. This is the one that breaks Sylva. She sits alone in her ballroom and cries. She doesn't sob, just lets the water pour out of her. She couldn't see that coming. She didn't see the ending that they were going to have. And she didn't think her powers were that fallible.

\--- auricularSnow [AS] has begun a conversation with axiomaticGuide [AG] ---

AS: ...we have to rethink this...

AG: YOU wanted to do it like this.

AG: THIS is on your shoulders.

AS: ...we both thought this was going to be okay...

AG: THE risk was something you ignored.

AS: ...i didn't ignore it!!!

AS: ...i just couldn't see that it was going to be this brutal to live through...

AG: WHY are you acting so surprised that it was brutal like this.

AS: ...they weren't going to...

AS: ...weren't going to go like that...

AS: ...i couldn't see their deaths...

AG: IT was a risk that we knew about when we got into this.

AG: OR did you think that your powers were truly that strong?

AG: You have to get over all of this. WE need to keep going. EVEN if we don't learn enough to win. THERE are others that are going to play this game that matter more than us or that group. I know that much. I know it because you told me that.

AS: ....and they will be able to do enough with the information we have given them...

AS: ...i don't know if i can play this version of the game like it is...

AS: ...i don't want to play this game this way anymore...


	2. Intermission I-2

AS: ...i don't want to play this game this way anymore...

AG: I'M still adjusting the game. The next version will be different.

\--- auricularSnow [AS] has blocked axiomaticGuide [AG] ---

And with that, she sits by herself for a couple weeks, just sitting in that ballroom, then wandering the house where her whole family used to live. She understands what's brought her to this point and where she will need to go next. She has seen this a hundred times and she knows what she will do next. And she even knows that she can't do it. You don't blame her when you see the writing on the wall.

Titus, on the other hand, is only infuriated. He leaves the house and tries to do something productive, but all he can think about is the game that he's supposed to be playing.

He's burning like a sun to the cold energy of the moon that is Sylva.

But Sylva is typing again, working on something. She doesn't talk to anyone about it, but she's still working on that guide. She knows that it will help someone. She doesn't want to get her thoughts stuck in the conversations that Titus is going to put her in. She just wants to be done with this.

And eventually, even Titus's energy runs out and he goes back to work on the program that he's been working on this entire time.

Side by side, the two of them are working hard on whatever it is that they're going to do. And the uneasy silence of this work weighs in on you.

But it's while they're working that you're taken far away from them. You realize that it's moving you to a place that both does and does not exist at that moment. The Medium of their session. The Medium where the two of them are going to show up. The planets are plain simple things. The two planets look practically identical. But the one thing that you can see about these planets are the platforms within them. These are not the simple stone slabs that you saw in Session A. No, these are elegant, well-designed platforms. They do look like they are made of stone, but they look crafted and put together. They look almost as if they were made for royalty instead of the masses.

And while you are looking at the platforms, time speeds up. You watch as the room of the platform comes to life. You see the colors of the room, blending the room that the players have down there with the colors of the planets above. You watch as they get into the room, lay on their platform, and slit their own throats. Their deaths are messy, hurried, and planned. But they came into the room unscathed. They did what they had to do.

When they come back to life, it's different than the others. The others were immediate and sudden. But the light within these players are buried and reluctant. It's like they're not meant to be this. But they do eventually become god tier. And that's when you see them talking again, before this moment.

AG: WE have to go into the game ourselves.

AS: ...this isn't what i meant...

AG: BUT this is the compromise that i have for you.

AG: WE don't drag in anyone else and we suffer for the things we did.

AG: BECAUSE we know that this game isn't ultimately intended for us here and now.

AS: ...what does this really do for us???

AS: ...our deaths will be pointless...

AS: ...we have incredible power and we're going to waste ourselves on this...

AS: ...we could do more...

AG: LOOK at our paths. DO you really see us getting any better a fate than getting into the game ourselves?

AS: ...yes...

AG: BUT is it likely?

AS: ...thanks to you no...

AS: ...you're our downfall...

AG: I am trying to complete what we were set out to do.

AG: DOWNLOAD the game. YOU will go in first.

\--- axiomaticGuide [AG] has uploaded two files. ---

Sylva looks at the files for a moment. She taps her fingers along the edge of her keyboard and closes her eyes. And then she downloads them. When they're downloaded, she opens the one file. She knows what she's done. She knows that she helped cement all of their fates to this path. And yet, she feels no anger about the way that it turned out. This was the way that it was going to be. This was the way that they were going to figure this out for the people that were really intended to play the game. The rest of the world was going to die anyway. Why not make it more exciting?

\---

Those two on their stone slabs radiated energy. And the newborn energy meant that they had titles now.

Sylva on her screen, in the long flowing outfit of dark colors, was labeled as the MUSE OF DOOM. The fabric is entirely too much and if there was a way to change it with no weapon in her hand, she would. And just as she goes for the discarded knife, the dress shrinks to something more manageable.

She zips out of the room and up to the surface of her world. THE LAND OF WAR AND BUTTERFLIES lays spread out in front of her, much smaller than the other worlds that you have seen. And also more active than any place you have seen. This tiny planet works on trying to destroy itself with every second that she's there. Sparking, sparkling butterfly wings coat it all and she could barely make out the shape of the landscape as it changes under the butterflies.

Titus doesn't move as quickly as she does. He lays on the stone for a long moment, just breathing in the new air. LORD OF MIND, the screen reads. And you can see it in his eyes. He's seeing all the paths that could be taken. You can see it in his eyes. He's aware now or where his path could have gone and what he should have done instead. But you can see him figure out the best plan to keep going forward.

And just like that, he's up on his planet, looking around THE LAND OF STRINGS AND PULSE. The vast surface is covered in what looks like yarn and each line pulses with energy like some sort of heart is beating that you can't see. As he walks across the surface, the pulsing grows stronger like it's reflecting back the power that he has given.

For a moment the pounding in your own ears matches what you see on the screen. And then as they stand there looking at out at everything, you see two different things on the screen at once. You see them, resplendent in their power, then all at once you see their corpses on a void creature. And at the same time, you hear the cry of the creature out there. And you see it in both realities, the void creature and its tentacles wave in front of you.

And then all at once, you are not looking at the creature anymore.

\---

This time you see them, unhappy and young. They look too young. They don't know each other. There's no message history between the two of them. There's no conversation that bridges them together yet. Sylva sits in her ballroom, but there is no set of books around her like there had been before. There are other things around her, other things that she's working on at this age. And even though Titus is on his computer, you seem blurs of faces run past him. He doesn't sit in his closet to work anymore. He's out in the open. But for each of them, they get the same message at roughly the same time.

\--- [] has begun a conversation with axiomaticGuide [AG] ---

: Hello Titus.

AG: WHO the hell are you?

: Well, I suppose that I am a no one, literally by this communication method's measurements.

: But for you, I am about to be a life-changer.

AG: HOW are you going to change my life if I don't even know why you're here.

AG: THIS plan that you have seems rather short-sighted.

: I would not say that my plan is short-sighted. Instead, I would say that you're not paying attention to the fact that you are just a small part of my larger picture.

AG: WHAT the fuck are you talking about?

: I have something that I want to introduce you to. And someone. I really think the two of you could do amazing things if you put your minds together.

: There's a game out there. It's amazing. It has the power to save the world, the real world. And I need some help making sure that this game is ready for the people that need to play it. Out of everyone in the world, it's just the two of you that I would trust with this.

AG: WHAT?

AG: A game that can save the world?

: Yes, it can do more than just be fun. It can actually save the world from whatever is coming next.

AG: AND

: I want you to do some work on it for me with this partner. One of you will be able to help alter the programming and the other will be able to work on a guide that someone can use.

AG: DO I get any say?

: Yes. But I can tell already that you think that this will be a great time. You've been bored, haven't you?

AG: I guess I can't argue that. SEND me the files and the username and I'll talk to them about this challenge.

\--- Three files have been uploaded to the computer axiomaticGuide [AG] ---

: Already in the spots where you would have put them before.

: And the user that you need to talk to is auricularSnow, she is currently speaking to me, but she will send you a reply soon if you talk to her now.

\--- [] has ended a conversation with axiomaticGuide [AG] ---

\--- [] has begun a conversation with auricularSnow [AS] ---

: Hello Sylva.

AS: ...hello???

AS: ...who are you???

AS: ...and why do you have no username or anything???

: Call me CYAN.

: I am here because there's something that I think you can do. It'll help the world out and it'll help some very specific people out.

AS: ...and why is it me???

: There are some very gifted people in our world and I believe that you might be one of the two that can help work on this game and create a guide that can be used by the people that are going to be trying to save the world themselves.

AS: ...i would like to do something to help the world, but i don't think that this is going to be it...

AS: ...this feels like something that i shouldn't be involved in...

: Oh no, Sylva, this is exactly what you should be involved in. You've always enjoyed helping people out online and I'm certain that heling save some people from a terrible fate will be right up your alley.

AS: ...i...

AS: ...i can try...

AS: ...what do you need me to do???

: I have some files for a game. You and another person will be working together on some game files and a guide. You'll have to divide the work yourselves.

\--- Three files have been uploaded to the computer of auricularSnow [AS] ---

: There are the beginning pieces for you. The person that you will be talking to has the username axiomaticGuide.

: I hope the two of you enjoy your time together.

\--- [] has ended a conversation with auricularSnow [AS] ---

Both Titus and Sylva looked at the unknown usernames that they were given and they tried to think of this world was going to change. Would their work together really change the world or was someone on another screen trying to mess with them?

\--- axiomaticGuide [AG] has begun a conversation with auricularSnow [AS] ---

AG: HELLO there. I think that both of us have just had a conversation with someone weird on the internet. MY name is Titus and whether or not this was some kind of giant joke, I look forward to working with you.

AS: ...hi...

AS: ...i hope that my work with you doesn't become too much of a bother...

And then it speeds through some things that you've seen and some quiet moments that you didn't see before. You see them joke and laugh together. You see them play their own games together. You're not sure why, but it somehow breaks your heart more knowing where they end up in the end. They got so close to being side by side in person at the end, and yet they were still stuck so far apart from each other. 


	3. Intermission I-3

You return to the two of them out in the emptiness of space as they stare down the creature out there. It's there, reaching all the way in, searching for their two planets. Sylva already knows that this is the end of them. She understands that before Titus even tries to open his mouth to tell her his plan. And before she can argue, he's running off to try and get the enemy away from her.

She takes the moment to do something that would seem dumb to anyone else.

\--- auricularSnow [AS] has begun a conversation with paperbackCalibrator [PC] ---

AS: ...i know that it has been a while...

AS: ...although i'm not sure how long anymore...

AS: ...there are several files that you can access here in this conversation...

AS: ...i'm not sure if you're going to be able to use them or if you're even going to want to touch them...

AS: ...cyan has probably reached out to you already... ...if he hasn't, then you'll hear from him soon...

AS: ...but don't make this decision lightly...

AS: ...thank you orson...

AS: for everything

\--- auricularSnow [AS] has exited a conversation with paperbackCalibrator [PC] ---

PC: ...

PC: Bye, Sylva. I hope you're safe.

You can see Orson in that moment, not on the TV, but in your own head. He's looking down at his desk after he's looked over the files on the computer. He's weighing the decision of what's to come. But you can only see Sylva, who found her way to the people that were intended to play this game. You're guessing that it wasn't even with the help of Cyan. And you're guessing that by the look on her face, she isn't sure that the choice that she made was the right one. Sending them the files feels like a mistake already, but there's no more time for considering that, there's only her flying across the medium, a dark green streak against the vast darkness.

Lord and Muse, side by side, fly through the darkness, lighting up the whole medium with an energy that they never would have known if they had spent all of their time on Earth. She doesn't regret it as the two of them combine their powers and send fraymotifs flying off in every direction. Energy flies this way and that. Beams of light shine over the vast darkness, lighting up the creature that's been hunting them now. But then something shifts. Too quickly for them to anticipate, the tentacles grapple them, wrapping them up inside. Their skin, where exposed binds to the skin of the tentacle. And even as they scream, they're wrapped up into nothing.

Sylva is the quietest of the two. After the human panic leaves her, she's silent, listening to Titus still trying to scream. There's no fight left in her. She would rather just let go than try to fight her destiny.

And each screen fills with something. A different vision. Two different clocks. And in the background, you can see their limbs still fighting, just based on taut they look. And then the clocks come to a halt, just as you see the limbs relax.

Sylva's screen reads HEROIC.

Titus's screen reads JUST.

As soon as they're gone, the clock disappears and you see the two different planets that are still out there in the medium. In a moment, the planets are gone, disappeared from the Medium. The creature disappears back into the shadows, but the screens show you the shapes of the two of them. Even though her eyes are closed, you can see a faint glow where they are. His eyes, you can see the purple light taking over the entirety of the eyes. You guess that it's learned something from consuming the two of them in this way. And you don't have to guess to understand what you see next.

The screen fast forwards past everything. You're past the end of the game, past the time that Irene disappeared. And then you're seeing something new. You're seeing the next session. You're not sure why you're still there. But then you hear the cry that shakes the screen. It's so loud, you go to cover your ears, and when you expect to hit the wrist restraints, there's nothing and you can cover your ears and close your eyes against the sound of it. But it still gets into your head even then. Your mind flashes through details of something you forgot...

YOU FORGOT HOW MUCH IT HURT TO DIE THE FIRST TIME. KNIFE TO GUT. RED PLATFORM. SKAIA ABOVE YOU.

You take a deep breath, shattering the glimpses of memories that your brain conjured up. Whatever it is. It's not real. It's fake. It's nothing. You didn't die. You're alive right now. That's how you're here. And that's how you exist in this space I have made for you.

You stand up and walk away from the screens. But when you turn to look for the door that you walked in here through, there's nothing there. They were removed while you were not looking.

I'm afraid that you're going to have to wait a moment before we continue our journey. AFTER ALL, I'M NOT THERE TO GUIDE YOU.

Dear you, I'm sure that you're ware that we've come to the end of our first movement, our first act of many. But alas, with your interference, your constant small rebellions, I haven't had time to set up what comes next, so take a moment to rest, to remember why we came here. You can remain in this room, trapped with these memories for a moment.

If you would like to speak with me about this choice, I would tell you to come find me. However, you're a bit stuck at the moment.

We will be reunited soon.

Just remember that you cannot change this. Your place in this has already been decided. Even how your story brought you here is something I know. It's better off forgotten. Maybe that's why you've come, to forget the memories of something not worth remembering. Maybe you stayed to learn. Even if you don't know why you're still here, reading this, you will remain. Until the very end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another End.
> 
> Another Beginning.
> 
> We shall see you again August 16th.


End file.
